Chapter Twelve: The Powder Keg
Chapter Twelve: The Powder Keg is the fifth episode in the second season of Coda. Synopsis With the wall of Crawford compromised and a core member killed, the group is forced into hiding. Janine recalls the tough times in her life post-apocalypse. Episode Transcript Act One Andrea entered the infirmary, ecstatic to finally see Theo again after being gone. “What happened to you?!” She shouted as Janine moved out of the way. “People were trying to get out...I tried to stop them, but uh...they didn’t wanna hear it.” He answered, grabbing her wrist gently and kissing her. “Thank God you’re okay.” She smiled. “I’ll give you two some space.” Janine exited as Andrea and Theo caught up after a couple days apart. “Are they good?” Riley asked Janine, smiling considerately. “Yeah, I think so. It must be tough…” Janine sighed. “I see what you mean.” Riley responded, touching Janine’s arm softly, “You dig him, don’t you?” Janine chuckled softly, “I don’t know. Maybe I do,” her grin turned to sorrow as she looked at the ground, “I don’t know if I deserve it, though. You guys turned me around for the better, but...I don’t know if that excuses the shit I did before.” Riley placed her hand on Janine’s shoulder comfortingly, but the other woman was gazed in her own mind. Act Two Janine ate out of a tin can full of baked beans alone behind the bar, marking another tally. Day number 52 since the outbreak. ”I can’t believe we’re still in this shithole. My uncle didn’t know how to keep this dump running before he died, he sure as hell didn’t keep it up enough for us to survive in this long, either.” Janine told Shelley, who scoffed. ”Well, we got nowhere else to go.” Shelley looked at Janine condescendingly, “Unless you got any better ideas?” ”That highway has got some good stuff, safe places, maybe. This piece of shit is falling apart day by day and I don’t wanna die here.’’ ‘’Definitely’’ not here. ”Maybe someday, but for now this is all we’ve got." Act Three “I don’t want to stay here. It seems so shady, and I don’t trust it one bit.” Nea told Bruce as they sat together in the concessions, sure that no one was around. “We’ve got nothing to worry about. Ted will find us, don’t worry. He’s fine, I’m sure of it.” Bruce comforted Nea, who smiled at him. Matt listened in on this conversation, remembering Tara shooting the man in the woods. Nea’s husband. ‘’Fuck.’’ Act Four Matt approached Declan, who was looking over the walls for Brandon and Avery. “Should we send a team out to find them?” Declan asked, worried for them. “I honestly don’t think we can.” Matt responded, listening in on the groaning of the undead underneath them who were attracted by the fire, “the herd is staying on one side primarily of the wall, so we need all hands on deck, in case, y’know…” Declan sighed, “Maybe if I go out the other side and look for them and come back quickly. Shit can’t go down ‘’that’’ fast, right?” “I don’t know. Seems risky. We need to hope they’re safe until then.” Matt looked at Declan, “I have to tell you something, too.” “Anything. What’s up?” “That woman, Tara...me, Brandon, and Lee saw her shoot a man in the woods before we talked to her. I just heard Nea and Bruce talking, and she said ‘Ted’ was missing or something. That guy said her name before he died, I think…” Matt sighed, “Something’s wrong here, man.” Act Five Brandon sneaked in the forest, looking for any signs of his missing friend. He spotted a small, discarded knife with the initials “R.T.” on them. Robbie Thompson. “There’s no way he’d just leave this behind…” Brandon whispered to himself, hearing footsteps behind him. He reached for the knife, and prepared to swing. Behind him was Avery, covered in walker blood. “Oh shit!” Brandon grabbed Avery, who was exhausted and on the brink of falling after being on the run all night, “Come on...let’s get you back home.” “Fine by me…” Avery painfully grinned at him. Act Six ”How ya doin’?” Shelley asked Janine as she approached her wrinkled and cut up bedspread near the entrance of their dreaded bar. ”Shitty,” Janine rubbed her eyes tiredly, “How’s our food lookin’?” Shelley looked down to her shoes, “Terrible, if I’m gonna be honest. But I heard somethin’ about some people down the road by the gas stations who are holed up. Easy pickings.” ”Hell yeah.” Janine chuckled. ”No matter what happens,” Shelley crouched down next to Janine’s ear, “Keep yourself in line.” Janine looked startled by the statement, “...what?” ”Roger saw ya give that family some of our water. You may think you’re slick but you’re not,” Shelley pointed her sharp knife toward Janine’s throat, “Stay in check, or don’t...but this is how we stay alive.” Act Seven “We need a plan.” Harper tells Amelio, who is quietly panicking in his seat on the board. Amelio then got up out of his seat and walked toward Oberson’s door, hesitating to knock. “Well…?” Riley asked, “This is a level 4 incident, we need Oberson.” “I CAN’T!” Amelio blew up, walking toward Riley, as Declan stood in the way. “Back the fuck up.” Declan put his hand on Amelio’s right shoulder, slowly pushing him away. “I’m sorry,” Amanda approached, getting between the two, “But we just can’t.” “Fuck it…” Matt muttered under his breath, heading toward the door. He latched his hand on the knob, and attempted to turn it, before being pulled to the ground by Amelio. “GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE.” Amelio demanded, with Matt sitting on the ground with an eyebrow raised. Matt hesitantly stood up with Harper’s assistance, and exited the room. “What is your problem?” Harper crossed her arms and got in Amelio’s face, visibly annoyed. Amelio ignored her question and exited alongside Matt. Amanda and Riley soon followed. “You comin’?” Riley asked Harper and Declan. “Just a sec…” Harper responded, “You go ahead.” Riley nodded and exited, as Harper and Declan approached Oberson’s door. Harper grabbed the knob, and turned. “Locked.” Harper was very confused at this point, “Why was he freaking out so much if it’s locked?” Declan looked at her, his eyes telling her there was no good reason. They left the room to join Riley. Act Eight Cheryl eyed Amelio as he exited from the main building, visibly furious at Harper’s group’s disobedience toward his rules. “What’s your problem?” Cheryl confronted him, confused by the anger and resentment he clearly held. “None of your concern. Don’t you have stuff to be doing right now?” Amelio answered her, pointing toward the trucks workers were piling with supplies in the event Crawford fell. “I’m just making sure we don’t have an issue worse than what’s at hand,” She answered, with only eight inches between their faces, “you of all people should know what’s at stake, and I ‘’know’’ you’re not stupid enough to jeopardize what everyone here has worked damn hard to build.” Amelio grunted in annoyance as Cheryl returned to her duties, as Amanda looked on to Amelio from behind. “She’s got a point…” Amanda muttered, riddled with confliction. “Can it,” Amelio discarded her claims, walking away, “I’ve got enough shit to deal with.” Act Nine Janine sat alongside the cold walls of the Tuckson Bar, glaring at the birds in the sky, free and fearless. She chuckled thinking about her “group” she has come to know. And had an idea. She looked around her, desperate for a sign of anyone else from her group still awake at this hour of midnight, “now’s my chance…” She reached for her weapon and prepared to flee, with only a small bag of supplies to last her until she found safety, “there’s the camp up north Shelly told me about...gotta get some help.” In one swift motion, she threw a walker down on the ground and smashed it’s teeth across a rock, emptying it’s jaws and any chance of it biting her. ”Predator becomes prey…” she whispered in the night. Act Ten “Are you okay to keep going?” Brandon asked Avery as he assisted him into a small shack in the woods, with no memory of how to return to Crawford. Avery just gave him a half smile alongside a chuckle, “I fucked up my ankle pretty bad but I’m no pansy.” Brandon snickered softly at this remark, as a few walkers outside made their way near, “I’ll take care of it, just try and get comfortable.” “Not gonna be easy.” Brandon exited the shack with a smile, only to quickly realize how outnumbered he was. He noticed what seemed like only a few walkers - was a few ‘’dozen’’ in the near distance. He used his strength to kick one walker in the chest, launching it backward to knock over a couple others. The remainders that were unaware of their presence soon realized there was fresh meat - and close by. “Fuck…” Brandon prepared his knife, and aimed at the closest undead in his vicinity, but his knife was taken down with it. He was crowded, but used a small opening to quickly evade his reanimated pursuers. “BRANDON!” Avery shouted, witnessing the occurrence through a small window, as a couple walkers began banging on the secured door to the shack. Act Eleven “You guys should be completely fine.” Amanda told Lane and Leah, recovering from their injuries gained after the previous explosion. “Thank you so much, Amanda.” Leah smiled, softly touching Amanda’s forearm. “You sure, Doc?” Lane rubbed the back of his head, “I feel like I took a big blow back there.” “Your pupils are dilating normally and you’ve reacted well to the tests,” Amanda examined the bump on Lane’s head, “I’d say once the bump has gone down you’ll be just fine.” “Thank God.” Lane chuckled. “Have you always been the Doctor here at Crawford?” Leah asked, curious. Voted to Exile Jonathan=“No, not really…” Amanda sighed, “I was an assistant until about the day you guys got here. One of our own, Jonathan, attacked me, knocked me out cold. Hurt like a bitch when I woke up. By the time I did, we decided to vote him out of the group - but he’d already escaped and killed our Doctor. Slit his throat to the bone…” Leah spoke up once more, “You made the right decision, voting him out. I don’t know if I could’ve done that…” Lane scoffed, “Seriously? You’ve got balls of steel, Leah. No-bullshit, I like that.” Amanda and Leah laughed together at this response, smiling for the first time in a while, Leah was happy. |-|Voted to Keep Jonathan=“No, not really…” Amanda sighed, “I was an assistant until about the day you guys got here. One of our own, Jonathan, attacked me, knocked me out cold. Hurt like a bitch when I woke up. By the time I did, we decided to let him stay with us, and we went to go give him the good news - but he’d already escaped and killed our Doctor. Slit his throat to the bone…” “Bet you regret ever wanting him to stay, huh?” Lane snickered, as Leah and Amanda stared at him, “Bad timing, I get it.” Amanda and Leah laughed together at this response, smiling for the first time in a while, Leah was happy. Act Twelve “We need to figure out what’s going on here,” Kari told Harper, Matt, Declan, and Robbie, as they sat inside a rations facility. “I don’t trust the guy, either, but won’t we just piss him off even more if we go snooping around?” Robbie intervened, biting his fingernails nervously. Harper looked to Robbie with intent to discover the truth, “I don’t care at this point, Amelio hasn’t been truthful with us since we got here. I want to know why.” Declan laughed, “Your attorney instincts are kicking in hard right now, y’know?” She shrugged with a smile, “Always in full gear.” “Fine. You do whatever you have to do, I’m going back out there to find Avery and Brandon.” Robbie grabbed a precautionary rifle from the building. “I’m coming with you,” Kari loaded up his weapon, “no ‘’way’’ I’m letting you go out there alone.” “Let’s do it.” Robbie agreed, as him and Kari left the building for another search attempt. “That just leaves us,” Matt muttered from a lonesome corner in the room, “so what’s the plan?” Act Thirteen “Nea, can we talk?” Matt approached the woman cautiously, preparing to admit something to her. “Sure...what’s up?” She seemed confused, as Bruce took the hint and walked away. “You’re...friends, with Tara, right?” “Yeah...obviously?” Nea was even more confused, as Matt leaned in closer. “I hate to say this, but she’s keeping something from you.” Matt rubbed his forehead, playing the part. “What? Is something wrong?” “Was Ted your husband?” Matt saw the shocked look in Nea’s eyes, and the plan came into action. Act Fourteen Janine released her heavily built up anger into the cowtrap walker she’d be using to avoid confrontations with the undead. Stabbing repetitively into its forehead, she eventually broke down sobbing next to its body. ”Up.” Shelley muttered from behind, as her pistol clicked. ”Dammit.” Janine raised her hands and stood up, turning to face Shelley. Janine glared bitterly at Shelley, who remained calm and steady with her finger on the trigger. ”Why?” Shelley simply asked, faintly raising her left eyebrow, “you could’ve been just fine…” Janine just stared at her for a few moments before responding to the question, “Being just fine isn’t what I want.” Shelley scoffed at the response, “You don’t get to pick and choose what you want. Not anymore. You belong with us, and you know it.” She lowered the gun and approached Janine, as a chill ran up the latter’s spine from the confrontation. ”Now come on. We got work to do. That group down the highway is headin’ this way, accordin’ to Rachel.” Janine’s hair blew in the wind as Shelley returned to the bar, and she reluctantly followed. Act Fifteen “Did you know?” Nea screamed across the lackluster street of Crawford to Bruce, who stood idly watching the kids play soccer. His head twisted in her direction, eyes wide open to glare at Nea marching toward him, “Did you fucking know what she did?” “What the hell are you talking about?” Bruce hopped out of his seat, Nea’s breath attacking his pores as his body rattled from Nea’s fist impacting his stomach. Tara and Carley raced outside toward the commotion, shocked to see Nea standing menacingly over Bruce, who cowered in fear on the ground. “What the hell is going on here?” Amelio exclaimed as he arrived on the scene, drawing his gun and handling it by his hip. “You.” Nea glared at Tara, and drew her gun, pointing it directly at Tara’s forehead. Tara shrieked in fear. “HOLY SHIT!” Carley drew her gun, pointing it directly at Nea’s chest, ready to fire. The invigorating confrontation disrupted the natural flow of Crawford, and everyone gathered around to see the ensuing chaos. Nea panicked, looking around, and ready to put a bullet in Tara’s head. “Why did you do it!?” Nea began softly crying to her former group leader, the person she looked up to, “You killed my Ted. You killed him…” Tara’s fear turned to rage, glaring into Nea’s soft eyes, “Your fault. You couldn’t keep the dog on its leash and he got out of control. He got what was coming to him. Just like you will.” Bruce stood up to interrupt the event, looking at Nea holding Tara at gunpoint, and Carley holding Nea at gunpoint. “Nea…” Bruce softly spoke, as Nea’s gaze failed to leave Tara’s, “Please don’t do this. You’re better than this. Please.” “I am better. I’m better than her. ‘’You’re’’ better than her. We all are. She’s scum. She deserves this. She deserves every fucking minute of it.” Nea growled angrily, pressing the barrel of her pistol against Tara’s forehead. The gun dripped with sweat that exited Tara’s forehead. “Please. I don’t want you to die. If you do this, you’re giving up your own life.” Act Sixteen Harper exited her house to see the commotion, noticing Bruce slowly approaching Nea. Unable to hear the conversation, she figured Matt’s plan had gone perfectly. She grabbed the key snagged off of Amelo, and headed toward Oberson’s office. She was stopped dead in her tracks by Theo. Harper looked up at him and gave a fake smile, attempting to walk past him. “Stop.” He muttered, clearly suspicious of her activities, “What are you doing? We’re on lockdown.” “Just…” Harper failed to face Theo, rather her back facing him, “I’m looking for Clementine. Christa couldn’t find her, so I’m going to head out and try to find her. I’ll take, like, five minutes.” Theo nodded, heading toward other houses to ensure no one was outdoors. Harper legitimately smiled and walked toward the main office. Act Seventeen Avery sprinted through the dark forest, as the sun abandoned the sky, looking for any trace of Brandon. Eventually, he came to a crossing, and a dead walker down one of the paths. “There.” Avery followed the path, leading him to yet another abandoned shack. Inside the shack, Brandon lied against the wall. The small amount of light remaining in the sky entered the building as Brandon looked to Avery. “Thank fuck. I thought you were dead.” Avery helped Brandon up, giving him a tight hug as they exited the shed, “Are you good?” “Never been better.” Brandon looked to Avery, smiling, as the two walked toward the forest. The moon now behind them, Brandon pulled Avery in closer, and kissed him. Their moment was dimly interrupted by several gunshots ringing through the forest, coming straight from Crawford. The two looked once more to each other, the smiles fading from their faces into terror, as a small herd of walkers behind them began their pursuit. They took off running into the night. Act Eighteen “Just stop. Please.” Bruce pleaded, with Carley ready to pull the trigger on Nea at any moment. Nea gave a moment of thought, and Bruce turned her around reaching for her gun. Nea looked up to him, and her face turned to anger. She turned to shoot Tara, with Bruce reaching his arm out to stop her. He pulled her arm toward himself, and four gunshots unleashed into Bruce’s stomach and chest, with another nearly hitting Carley, before she dove to the floor and knocked her head on the curb, rendering her unconscious. Bruce dropped to the floor, dead, as Tara made an attempt to run. Nea turned to her, shooting just past her, “Don’t take another step you fucking whore.” Act Nineteen Harper and Matt united at the entrance to the main building, hearing several gunshots ringing through the town. Harper stopped dead in her tracks, looking to Matt in shock which turned to disgust, “What the fuck did you do?!” Matt contemplated for a moment, before grasping Harper’s shoulder, “I did what I had to do to get what we need. Let’s go.” Matt entered, as Harper idled behind for a moment, before reluctantly joining him inside. The two approached the door, as a voice behind them rose, “Stop right there.” Act Twenty Chaos reigned through the streets of Crawford, and Nea lied on the ground in pain after a barrage of citizens rushed her. She was able to evade the attacks, and ran to a truck. “Fuck this.” Nea yelled out, entering the vehicle. She turned on the ignition, and drove. “Oh, shit.” Carley yelled out, finally reaching consciousness, and she reached for her gun. She fired multiple shots toward the truck, as it drove straight into the wall of Crawford, escaping. Debris flew through the streets, with a large piece landing into Omid’s shoulder. Christa screamed out, as Omid screeched in pain. The wall was officially compromised. A moment of silence, the calm before the storm, peaked as everyone stopped and stared at the wall. Groans of the dead brought redness to the cheeks of many as the herd poured in through the walls. Deaths *Bruce Atkinson Co-Stars * Mara Junot as Christa Watts * Owen Thomas as Omid Lenays Trivia * Last appearance of Bruce Atkinson. * Last appearance of Nea Harrison. (Unknown) * Last appearance of Shelley. (Flashback) * The conflict between Harper's group and the leaders of Crawford comes to a head in this episode.